THE World Bank has signalled its willingness to fund a menu of health projects in Guyana totalling US$5M (GUY$1B).
The Public Health Ministry projects include developing its entomological services; using ultrasound techniques to identify foetuses with microcephaly; and strengthening the capacity of communities nation-wide to control breeding sites of vectors, by using innovative techniques.

Last Friday, the World Bank’s Practice Manager, Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, David Dulitzky; Health Specialists, Neesha Harnam; and Senior Operations Officer, Carmen Carpio, met with a team of public health officials led by Junior Public Health Minister, Dr. Karen Cummings.
“We hope that health is a priority in the next four years,” for the Guyanese government, Dulitzky said during the meeting at the ministry’s secretariat on Brickdam on Friday.
Dulitzky explained that the bank meets quadrennially to consider funding public health projects of the nature presented by the public health minister.
“We hope the Ministry of Finance finds these agreed programmes of work, attractive,” he added. The World Bank officials were also scheduled to meet with officials from the Finance Ministry.

On the issue of insect study, Dr Horace Cox, MoPH Director of Vector Control Services, noted that the ministry wants to “upgrade an existing biologist to an entomologist.”
Cox anticipates that a resurgent and expanded entomological unit will need two medical epidemiologists; 14 surveillance officers; 14 epidemiology nurses, and 50 assistants spread throughout the 10 regions of Guyana.

In addition, he anticipates a legal framework review to assess the authority of Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) “to require households to address unsanitary conditions” of their environments.
The financial support from the World Bank will also be used to train health workers and social workers to provide psychosocial support for families with risk of Zika abnormalities to their new-born, Cox said.

He said part of the funding will also be utilised to help devise long-term programmes for extended care needed by children born with microcephaly.
The funding from the World Bank is also critical because “exposure to vector- borne diseases has an economic cost,” Dulitzky reminded during the meeting, emphasising that the World Bank is very concerned about the ability of countries’ preparedness to “manage health emergencies.”
Cox in his presentation pushed for construction of an entomology lab outfitted with all the necessary paraphernalia, including laboratory and field equipment, vehicles and machines for the job.
Dr Troy Sagon, who is attached in the Chronic Diseases Unit, also added that the MoPH wants the capacity to test for diabetes, cholesterol, thyroid and the various forms of cancer.
When she spoke, Dr Karen Cummings told the World Bank that the country is determined to narrow the gap in medical services and standards between the country’s heavily populated coastal areas affected by Aedes-borne diseases and its sprawling hinterland communities affected by malaria.

Currently, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) swallow up some 70 per cent of the MoPH annual fiscal estimates, Cummings reminded.
When the bank’s representatives enquired about the status of Yellow Fever (YF), here, Cox said “there is no case of Yellow Fever in Guyana.”
The country has achieved some 95 per cent vaccination coverage in the country, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Shamdeo Persaud confirmed.
“I am hopeful that the key programmes get the World Bank’s financial support,” Dr. Persaud said.

Based on these discussions, Senior Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence and Dr Cummings will be presenting the multi-million dollar projects to Cabinet this week for approval. Although the Wold Bank is willing to finance these initiatives, approval must first come from the Cabinet.